


Integration

by Moonlightdeer



Category: Bumblebee Fandom, Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Cybertronian world building, Decepticons being Deceptive, F/F, F/M, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mentions of PTSD, More tags to be added, Multi, N-0V4 just wants her old job back, No Incest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25031530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlightdeer/pseuds/Moonlightdeer
Summary: (Spiritual successor of Stealth now set in Knightsverse, original story posted on FF.net but posting this new story on both because I wanted to.) N-0V4 was supposed to lay low on the Moon, waiting for B-127's go no go signal, but nothing ever really does go to plan these cycles. Follow N-0V4 as she tries to locate the now presumed MIA scout, all while trying maintain cover on this new and unexplored organic world. Oh and Shatter has a bone to pick with her.
Relationships: Bumblebee/Charlie Watson, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Sideswipe (Transformers)/Original Female Character(s), Sunstreaker (Transformers)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

**This story is a spiritual successor to one I started writing on ff.net back in 2015, I burned out on it but after seeing Bumblebee in theaters the old plot cauldron was boiling away and it was only the fact I was having to juggle Birds with Uni already that I held off on writing. Now Uni is done, I've had the time to actually start writing this. Hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

"AUTOBOTS! FALL BACK!"

The shout echoed across the battlefield, the red branded forces breaking away from where they'd been desperately trying to hold the line.

Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobot resistance forces, did what he could, waiting for the rest of his forces to move back before beginning to fall back himself, his ion cannon firing out into the encroaching mass of Decepticon forces.

His optics darted across the battlefield, desperately searching for the one member of his team he hadn't seen retreat.

A few more moments of desperate searching, and he heard it, just as everyone else on the battlefield.

The whine, that high pitched sound that balanced on the edge of being too high for even their advanced hearing to catch, and so shrill it caused many to flinch, both from the sound, and what that sound promised.

It was the only tell, that ring that caused all to flinch.

So late in the war, only a fool turned off their audios to avoid it.

He caught the flash, the shimmer in the light of blaster fire.

Coming in hot, hurtling towards the battlefield at a rate that the atmosphere burned around it.

There was a flash.

He was running, shouting to his forces to fully disengage, to reach the launch pad.

They all felt the blast of heat as the payload detonated.

The entire walkway they were running down lurched upwards from the blast's shockwave, the burning heat knocking them forwards.

The wall of fire and ash was already catching up, having engulfed a massive chunk of the Decepticons forces directly behind them.

Those on the surrounding sides were quickly moving in, despite the massive fireball, trying to cut off him and his forces.

All while the Decepticons anit-seeker weaponry was quickly brought back online, firing volley after volley into the sky.

Trying to catch the last Autobot.

The noise was so great, it took the brush of a familiar EM field to put the Prime's spark at ease.

The Autobots last surviving trump card, N-0V4, was keeping pace with him, outpacing him, her momentum from dropping from the upper atmosphere still forcing her forwards despite now being in a brutal sprint, plating red hot and pinging as it started to cool in the wind that rushed around them.

At some point she'd transformed into her bipedal mode.

He didn't think to look beside him. He could hear her and feel the intense heat radiating off her.

Considering the lack of blaster fire trained on him, or really, the normal amount, he doubted N-0V4 had dropped her cloak.

She'd pulsed her EM field to let him know she was there, outpacing him, following his orders.

The ever loyal soldier, just like all his remaining forces.

They reached the launch pad, and he turned his attention to B-127, intending to give the scout his new mission.

N-0V4 broke away, finally dropping her cloak, revealing the large, sleek seeker frame, her purple white and gold, extreme heat and explosion damaged colour scheme standing out against the fiery hellscape that surrounded them, her vents labouring as she tried to somewhat cool her systems.

The seeker still ran over to the solid red mech already getting into one of the launch pads.

"Hide!"

The weapons specialist looked over to the seeker. "N-0?"

The seeker glanced skyward, pulling a large gatling gun like weapon from her back. "I'll cover you all… stay safe out there."

Ironhide looked over the seeker, really looked over the much taller femme, she was three helms over Prime, but her light build often made her seem smaller.

Ironhide reached out, and grabbed onto her arm, getting her attention back. "Keep safe, we need you online."

N-0V4 stared at him for a moment, before nodding, and running back towards the Prime.

It wasn't goodbye forever, they were parting for now, but they'd soon meet back up.

She'd make sure they all made it off planet safe.

"Prime!"

Her voice was a sharp one, and it caught the Prime's attention a moment after he sent B-127 on his way.

N-0V4 was already firing upwards, trying to force the dispersion of the seekers flying overhelm.

"You need to get to an escape pod! Now!" She shouted over the artillery fire.

Optimus Prime seemed to hesitate, regarding her for a moment. "N-0V4, disengage."

Her optics, still focused on her targets above, widened. "Sir… please tell me you're your not planning what I think you're planning?!"

His resolve only hardened at her statement. "N-0V4, disengage, the others need you in the air."

He caught her glancing around the launch pad, already it was beginning to keel to the right under their pedes, the explosions that were rocking it's base throwing the entire structure into collapse.

N-0V4 was no fool, scattered in thoughts at times maybe, but anyone who thought she was dumb, made a grave mis-calculation.

He held her optics, making sure she understood how serious he was on this. "I will buy you all time by drawing their fire."

He could see her work her denta, but relented with a nod. "We need you Prime… don't do anything too stupidly heroic."

With that, she activated her thrusters and launched upwards, keeping pace with the escape pods as they rocketed upwards.

Optimus Prime tracked their departure for a moment, before the Launch pads pillars began to truly give way, groaning as the platform tilted further and further in it's descent towards the ground.

It was time to run a nice diversion.

N-0V4 easily kept pace, and outpaced the other seekers, her drives, engines and systems running red hot still as she rocketed across the smoke filled atmosphere, dodging the blaster fire trained on her uncloaked form, drawing all the fire she could away from her teammates.

Already in the first atmospheric belt, N-0V4, B-217, Ironhide and their comrades rocketed upwards, some looking back at their home world they were now abandoning to Decepticon rule, others focused on the Universe beyond.

N-0V4 and B-127 were in the former group, though one had the ability to look out of his escape pod, the other only had the grainy cracked rear camera they had, their attention split as they dodged the last few blaster shots aimed by the last few of her fellow Seekers as they tried to chase her, using their fire power to try and catch her otherwise unmatched speed.

Deciding now was as good as ever, she jammed all of her systems in a hard right and transformed back to her root mode, pulling the gatling gun from her back once more as she let off volley after volley of rounds at the Seekers racing up to try and blow them out of the sky.

It used to hurt her spark to shoot at her own kin, but now, she didn't care, they were the enemy, and they were going after her unit.

So, she continued her volley, thrusters keeping her from plummeting back down to the surface as each round sent her just that bit further upwards into the stars.

She watched as armour shredded and fuel tanks ignited, a manic grin slowly developing on her features as she pressed her attack, a wild grin that promised much.

Eventually, her unit was clear of where the seekers were willing to shoot at, and began to disperse, the few left sending a last volley at her, a last attempt to slag her.

She was a traitor to their kind after all, they had every reason to shoot her out of the sky as far as they were concerned.

It didn't take long for her to pick off the last one, his face exploding as three separate rounds scoured direct hits.

Only as his frame began to burn up on re-entry, did she turn, and gun her systems to full power once more, and blast out of Cybertron's polluted atmosphere, tailing and quickly gaining on the escape pods, sending a salute to B-127 when she spotted him peering back at her.

He had his destination, she had hers.

They'd meet up on the planet Optimus had chosen for them once B-127 had gotten a proper location scoutout done.

So long as nothing went wrong…

She was being sent to hold tight on the planets moon as back up…

She sent a little prayer that she wouldn't go stir crazy waiting all alone.

Only time would reveal their fates though, and for once in her life, N-0V4 was going to have to be patient.

* * *

**I drew what N-0V4 looks like if anyone is curious.**

****

**(The image doesn't seem to want to load in preview so I'll also provide a hyperlink to where it is on DA**

<https://www.deviantart.com/moonlightdeer739/art/N-0V4-Intergration-design-847414343>

**Thanks for reading!**

**Moon**


	2. Chapter 2

**And here's chapter 2! Have fun!**

* * *

N-0V4 was bored.

No, she was beyond bored, she was reaching the point when her servos twitched to pull something apart.

But there was nothing to pull apart, other than her weaponry, but she'd already pulled them all apart, and then put them all back together twice! If she did it a third time so soon she'd fall into recharge from how mundane it was!

The thrusters on her pedes flared and then choked as the grey loose rocks and dust floated up and gummed them up more than they already were.

N-0V4 groaned and hopped up onto one pede to try and pick the debris out with her claw tipped digits, it would reclog soon enough but if she just left it it could really damage the systems inside.

Lucky her the gravity of this little moon was so weak she didn't have to worry too much about falling over, she only weighed a 6th of her usual amount and so wouldn't have to worry too much about her wings if she took a tumble while trying to clean out her pede thrusters.

A few more hops around in the current crater she was standing in, and the pede thruster was clean, now to just do the other one that had even more stuff clogging it from all the hopping…

N-0V4 took a moment to rue fate for getting her stationed on a moon that doomed her to constant pede preening.

And that was when she spotted it.

There was something _shiny_ on the dust ball moon.

Optics going wide as she zoomed in, she let off a squeal, the sound lost to the vacuum of space as she redirected her focus towards getting to the _shiny_.

She was a seeker, it was in her nature to love shiny things.

Though making faces in the very shiny gold foil that was wrapped around the little thing she found was abjectly not within a seekers nature, she was bored and hadn't had a good surface to make faces at for a long while.

It was while she was pulling at the sides of her mouth with her digits and sticking her glossa out at the warped and wrinkled reflection that she actually realised what she was looking at.

Shiny things tended to shut down her logic and reason for a bit.

This wasn't just a rare shiny on a moon, this was an _alien_ shiny something on a moon that showed no other signs of life.

Her helm and optics slowly drifted to the planet this moon orbited around, so blue and green, teeming with millions if not billions of different species of organic life.

Looks like the dominant species had tried their hand at space travel…

She couldn't help but beam, and perform a little jump for joy that took a while to get back down from.

Once she was back on solid ground, she let her more analytical side come to the forefront, and she began to look past the shiny foil that covered the structures supporting legs and under carriage… there was what seemed to be a rather simple connector point, and burn marks in a number of slots and their surrounding areas…

She glanced around further, and spotted them, tiny little pedeprints in the moon dust.

N-0V4 clapped her servos to her lower faceplates and let off a silent squeal of joy. She was standing in the same place as _Aliens_ had stood! While making their first tentative steps into space travel!

Someone punch her!

She began to pick at the visible components with the tips of her digits, one servo reaching up to pull down the magnifier she had somewhat crudely magnetised to the side of her helm flaring.

Ratchet always bemoaned that if she wasn't careful it would get jammed during a transformation, but so far the handy dandy tool hadn't caused her any grief, so she kept it magnetised to her helm so that just a quick motion had it positioned in front of her left optic so that she could have an enhanced zoom without causing optic strain.

Once more it proved its value by letting her spot the finer details, including a odd set of markings hidden on one of the support limbs that said 'Kilroy was here' whatever that meant, she hadn't figured out the dominant species language yet, she'd have to do that when she was eventually allowed to go planetside.

Pulling out an old data pad, she booted it up and typed in another note, note 93,757,907 to be exact… and suddenly she had the urge to scroll back and see what else she'd noted down to remind her of later…

Ten kliks later and she was well and truly reminded of the fact that all her notes prior to the last one, were now well and truly both out of date, and out of possibility to perform.

Which is what happens when you have to flee the only place you'd ever known as home and been told to sit pretty on a moon until someone needed her to fly around for something, or B-127 managed to scout out a base location for them…

Maybe she should try digging? Yes her energy signature was just as cloaked as everyone else's, and yes she had the additional cloaking device that hid her from being detected by the optic… but that was really energy expensive and they'd all been advised to ration their energon supplies…

She looked to her claws, down at the dusty ground, and muttered a silent curse to Primus for her luck.

No time like the present to start digging, and maybe the monotony of digging a hole on a moon with a ground consistency not far off liquid would keep her processor from wandering…

Or test her patience and sanity to the point she might just have to be locked in a brig for the rest of her existence…

Suddenly she didn't want to dig anymore…

Absolutely typical.

She reached up and pinched the purple armour that went between her optics in frustration, why was she like this?

She looked back to the stuff she'd found and spotted something she hadn't noticed earlier.

It was a… a pole, with something hanging off it, soft blue in one corner which had one, two, three… fifty little stars, and the rest of the square was white and pink stripes.

Crouching down again, she reached out and carefully poked it, it gave and didn't immediately break on contact.

Using her magnifier she looked closer at its structure, it was made up of tiny little wires, all woven together to create a sturdy mesh…

It was strange, obviously the dominant species had left it behind here… but it was so small…

The species was apparently small, she reminded herself.

She carefully plucked it out of the ground by the pole, and waved it around a bit.

Before she knew it she was giggling and really getting into watching which way the mesh went as she waved around the pole.

Her enjoyment was abruptly put on hold when her HUD pinged suddenly with signal...

Startled, she opened the signal, and felt her spark drop into a fuel tanks… that was a distress signal… on the main Autobot frequency.

Her optics trained away from the woven mesh and pole, going out towards where she was tracking the signal from…

One of the moons of the first ringed planet in this solar system…

She had to move, and fast.

She broke out into as much of a sprint as the moons gravity allowed, once up to a decent moment she jumped up and clear of the dust cloud she'd created, and activated her T-Cog.

The moment she was finished with her transformation into her alt mode, she gunned her tri-engines and launched out of the moon's weak gravity.

Hopefully she'd get there in time…

Mimas orbiting Saturn

Cliffjumper snarled, he'd managed to get himself out of his shot down escape pod, which had managed to send out a distress signal not long before it sustained the damage that knocked it down to the moons surface.

He spotted the Decepticon ship that had caught up with him, it had landed on a nearby stretch of relatively flat ground.

Transforming his servos into cannons, he'd prepared himself for the unfair fight he was about to face…

Dropkick chuckled to himself as he tossed away the arm he'd torn from the small red Autobot, who was now trying to get away from them by way of dragging himself along the ground. "Pathetic…" He rumbled, Shatter hummed in agreement next to him.

"Where is Optimus Prime?" Shatter rumbled out, looking down at the Autobot in disdain. "He survived the fall of Cybertron… And no rebellion is truly dead, until the leader is vanquished… so... where… is he?"

Cliffjumper had rolled onto his back at this point, and glared up at his attackers. "My name is Cliffjumper, Lieutenant in the Autobot Resistance. My safe return would be consider-AH!" Dropkick's sword striking him in the chassis cut him off.

"Wrong answer~" Shatter singsonged.

"Ugh… ah…" Cliffjumped groaned, taking in the horrid blade now cutting deep into his chassis.

"We know he's planning to establish a base... " Cliffjumper grunted in pain again as Shatter kept talking. "Tell us where it is… and we'll let you… live…" Shatter trailed off, looking up past Cliffjumper, she could hear something, something familiar…

Denta gritting, she looked to Dropkick. "It would seem we're about to have some unwelcome company…"

Dropkick glanced towards her, and then turned his audios up, allowing him to catch what she had, he snarled. "I'd know those tri-engines anywhere…"

"Indeed, keep Cliffjumper here, I'm not done… chatting with him. I'll be back with N-0V4's helm shortly." She remarked, jumping up to transform into her altmode and blasting upwards to meet the inbound seeker helm on.

And it was at that finite moment where she was beginning to accelerate, something came over the general frequency.

Shatter cut her engines and transformed back, landing just close enough to hear Cliffjumpers negative cry, which only confirmed what she heard more, as she set to quickly tracking the signal.

It came from this solar system… from the third planet closest to the star…

It was in that moment of distraction as she traced the Autobot scout B-127, that she'd falsely lowered her guard, and allowed the inbound shot to make its mark.

The round hit her shoulder flaring and detonated on impact, tearing a scream of agony from her as the armour and more vital components of her right shoulder were decimated, and shrapnel embedded itself into the side of her helm and the surrounding area, badly damaging her right optic in the process.

Before she could properly react further to the attack, the muzzle of the weapon that had just devastated her shoulder was pressed into the spot between her optics, hard. " _Traitor…_ " Shatter snarled out, crimson red optics narrowed at the flickering blues of the slightly taller Seeker.

N-0V4 looked to where Dropkick had Cliffjumper pinned. "Trade, you give him to me, and I don't blow her processor to pieces at point blank range."

Both Cons gritted their denta, Cliffjumper did too, though he was pinned to the ground in such a way that he couldn't see N-0V4 or Shatter.

Shatter didn't dare turn her helm to order her partner what to do, if N-0V4 offlined her now, she would never have her vengeance on the traitor.

Dropkick seemed to understand this, and so, going deliberately slowly and with a noticeable twist, which cause Cliffjumper to grimace in agony, dragged his wrist mounted sword out, and proceeded to punt kick the smaller red Autobot in the direction of N-0V4 and Shatter.

N-0V4 nodded, and pushed harder on the muzzle, forcing Shatter to take a step back, and then another, then, she carefully crouched, and grabbed Cliffjumper up by his still attached arm, and with a grunt, dragged the smaller mech behind her, and then kicked him behind her, which had him grunting in indignation.

In a split second motion, she re-adjusted the location of the guns muzzle, and fired two shots into Shatter's abdominal structure.

The red triple changer went down, knocked back by the explosive force of the rounds as N-0V4 turned, grabbed up Cliffjumper, and charged towards Dropkick, double checking him with the broadside of her wide spanning shoulder platting, as she ducked a moment to grab up Cliffjumper's severed limb.

Soon enough she was taking off, pede mounted jet engines firing up alongside the one mounted between her wings trailing blue fire as she had to not just get herself out of the moons gravitational pull, but also counter the added weight of Cliffjumper, who was squirming just a bit too much in her hold.

Back on the moon's surface, Shatter screamed after the retreating seeker. "TRAITOR! I'LL HAVE YOUR HELM! MARK MY WORDS!"

N-0V4 didn't mark them, she was already too close to the vacuum of space to hear them.

Dropkick tentatively went to his partners side. "I'll fetch the med kit…"

Shatter snarled at him. "No time, we have to track down all of them… all three…" She groaned as she pressed a servo to her blown open middle, her right arm and servo weren't responding, and hung limp at her side.

Dropkick frowned. "Tell that to you're exposed internals…" He began hauling the larger femme up to carry her back to the ship by way of carrying her on his back.

Shatter snarled as she was jostled, but conceded defeat when she realised what she was holding was her own fuel pump…

Not an immediate kill shot… Just as promised in the terms of the trade… She almost smirked…

Still plenty of Decepticon code in that Traitor…

* * *

**And already drama brews, until next time!**


	3. Chapter 3

**And here's chapter 3! Sorry this took so long, had some really unpleasantly humid weather on top of having a bunch of irl stuff to do "being an adult" and so I didn't have much energy to spare for this. But all is good now and so, here's chapter 3, hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Vietnam, Asia, Earth

"I could have handled it."

"Uh huh. Tell that to the arm I'm trying to reattach"

Cliffjumper huffed, looking away from where N-0V4 was trying to reconnect his severed limb.

Only to grunt in pain as she tripped one of the main sensory lines that had been severed. "Sorry!" She yelped, pulling her servos away, a small welding tool pinched between two of her claws. In the process of jerking away, his still mostly unattached arm dropped back to the organic covered ground with a dull 'thunk'.

He growled. "Yeah, I bet you slagging are."

N-0V4's optics widened for a moment, before she looked away at the ground she was kneeling on, she tried not to let her servos clench into fists. "... Ah… I see… Well I'm the only one here with two working servos, so you're just going to have to let me do this if you want to have both your arms back in working order… or that nasty wound on your chassis patched…"

"Just leave it for when Ratchet gets here." He snapped back.

N-0V4 scowled, picked up the limb, and stuck one of her tools, a set of pliers into a seam in the smaller mechs servo. "You feel that?"

His jaw dropped. "Did… did you just stab me?! You-!"

"Did you feel it?" N-0V4 spoke over, and began to twist the metal her pliers had snatched up.

Cliffjumper took a moment to reply. "No…"

N-0V4 gave him a winning smile, bent the piece of metal back into place, and began to patch the hole with her soldering tool. "Then I'm not done and you need to suck it up, Ratchet won't be here in time to stop your stumps going rusty, and well, we certainly don't have access to replacement arms anymore, do we?"

"...No…"

"Exactly, now will you pause your hatred for me as a 'filthy con'? At least for as long as it takes me to patch your arm?"

Cliffjumper didn't answer, so she took that as a non-verbal confirmation to continue.

Twenty kliks later he spoke. "You're optics are going red again."

N-0V4 jerked a bit, but this time managed not to drop the limb, she was getting close to getting it fully attached, she thinks so at least. "I'll deal with them later." She mumbled as she focused back on her work, trying to not let her left optic twitch at being reminded she hadn't remembered to top up the dye.

Cliffjumper grumbled. "You're doing a slag job."

She clenched her dentas, took in a vent, held it, then let all the culminated hot air blow out. "Of _course_ I _am_ , but remember, I'm the demolitions and munitions expert, _not_ a medic, be thankful I have enough knowledge of self repair to not just, oh I don't know, accidentally blow you up." She waved the servo she was holding the soldering tool in a bit to enunciate her point. "You want a bomb that can level a building? Oh I've got fifty just sitting around in my subspace because I keep forgetting they're there. You want a high velocity round that explodes outwards into twisted metal fragments that will absolutely cause internal damage on a critical scale? Got at least three of my guns loaded with those you can borrow one if you ask _nicely_. Want an upper-atmosphere-to-ground-payload-that-can-and-will-level-an-entire-city state-with -the-impact-kinetic-force-magnified-by-a-sub-atomic-payload-that-causes-a-massive-blast-wave-that-would-absolutely-decimate-a-planet-like-the-one-we're-currently-on? No can do, I used up my last one so we could escape Cybertron and last I heard all my raw materials got slagged by Cons who don't understand how molecular and subatomic physics works!"

Cliffjumper had raised a concerned optic ridge at her at some point during her fast paced ramble.

She took in a vent to steady herself and put a smile back on her features. "So, are you going to stop glitching over my shoddy medic work? And are you going to stay quiet for the foreseeable future so that I can avoid slagging this up spectacularly? Anymore than I already am?!"

Cliffjumper again conceded in silence, and let her continue trying to reattach his arm.

He didn't like it, but N-0V4 had a point, and he was absolutely not going to say it out loud.

Not to a damn Con who thinks she can play Autobot and somehow got into Prime's good graces.

Two joors later, N-0V4 finally connected the last severed connector with her soldering tools, and let off a sigh of relief. "Okay… can you feel anything now?"

He tentatively flexed one digit, then another, and another, until he was able to clench his fist, he could feel the pressure… damn Con had managed to actually properly put his arm back together.

"Now, I advise against using the canon you have in that servo, the transformation process has a high chance of undoing the soldering, Ratchet's going to have to re-do pretty much all of this when he gets here, but hey, at least you won't have to carry around your own arm until it rusts?" She was rambling and he didn't care to pay attention, she did her job he figured.

He slowly tried to rise, and he found a servo pushing him right back down, the red/blue ratio of her optics was leaning more to the red now, and as she scowled at him to hold still, he acted on impulse.

"ACK!" She fell back, clutching the gold plating that ran down the middle of her neck cables, which were now dented in from where he'd punched them.

"You've done all I needed you to do, I can fix the rest myself Con." He snapped at her.

N-0V4's jaw dropped a little in shock, she shuffled back away from him, weary of another strike.

The back of her neck gave a dull thud of pain alongside the much sharper pain at the front.

She fought back the urge to let lubricant pool, but as her vents hiccuped from the sudden obstruction of her main circulation line, that proved more challenging than usual.

Cliffjumper pointed to the yellow squished diamond plate just under the plates that hid her spark chamber, the contents of which was thrashing erratically at the sudden assault. "You may wear the Autobot Brand now, but you will always be a Con to me, and no amount of shody medical aid is going to change that."

With a grimace she carefully forced the dented plates back into position, and once her central vent line was no longer obstructed and her helm had cooled down, N-0V4 carefully rose up to her full towering height, at least double Cliffjumper's height, she tried to hold a position to suggest he hadn't really affected her with his words… but she couldn't hide how her wings drooped and shook behind her.

"I'm… I'm going to locate B-127…"

"So you can slag him and reveal all of our locations to the Cons no doubt!"

N-0V4's armour bristled and she gritted her denta, trying not to grind them against each other. "No. I am going to locate him to figure out why he'd just blast a signal like the one he did on the main open com-line all Cybertronians have access to, he wouldn't do that normally."

Cliffjumper huffed and rose to his own pedes, barely coming up to her hip. "A likely excuse."

N-0V4 turned to rebuke him, but stopped, took an in-vent, and turned back, flexing her wings to loosen their gears and hydraulics. "Irregardless, you need to patch your wound and your alt mode isn't sufficient to keep up with mine, so I'm going to begin searching. And you're going to stay here, in this… organic growth, and try and set up a temporary base of operations.

"Bah, what I wouldn't give for a mode lock right now…" Cliffjumper muttered under his vents, but N-0V4 heard it, he made sure she could hear it.

The plating along her back flared as her turbines kicked up, but she didn't turn to address him, she just used it as the start of her launch, and after a few quick moments the thrust coming from her three engines was enough to get her above the growth height, enabling her to transform, activate her cloak, and blast away further inland.

Cliffjumper tried to watch her go, but knew it was futile after the cloaking device was activated.

Muttering to himself he started to poke at the wound on his chassis, he had the tools, he could fix this himself.

Maybe.

* * *

N-0V4 blasted through another thick cloud bank, the lands below now rocky and mountainous, she didn't spy any natives roaming the hills, outside of a few patches of the local fauna…

Making her decision she dropped towards the side of one of the mountains, transforming just in time to catch a large boulder with her servo to help steady her as she found her footing on the steep slope.

A few kliks of stomping the ground flat, and with her wings flattened against her back, she carefully slid down onto her aft.

One vent in… hold… and release… one vent in… hold… release…

Sliding her optics closed she took a moment to try and centre herself, a little trick Optimus had taught her when everything just… became too much…

A few moments later she shoved her dark faceplates into her servos, and just, tried to muffle the scream…

It echoed across the mountain range regardless, startling a good number of fauna in the process.

She rubbed and pulled at the plates that made up her face, especially those around her optics.

Taking a moment to try and steady herself again, she pulled out a piece of the reflective foil she'd pulled off that landing thing she'd found on this planet's moon…

Sure enough, even with the yellow tint she could make out the ever damning, ever familiar red paths that were starting to take over the blues…

She hated this…

She put the foil back away and started rummaging in her subspace for the dye, it didn't take too long to find, it was a large enough canister with a nozzle attached for application…

Already only two thirds full…

Maybe she should hold off on applying a touch up?

The plates at the front of her neckcables took that as a sign to throb a bit harder.

She wasn't surprised Cliffjumper had taken his chance to punch her…

He hated her, loathed her…

And she couldn't blame him one bit…

She was the one that had decimated his unit…

But she hadn't known him, or his unit then… she was… just following orders… just like she was trying to do now…

She just wanted to be a good soldier for Optimus…

But Autobots don't have red optics…

Or blue optics that never stay blue for long…

No matter how much dye was applied…

She put the canister down next to her, and dropped her face back into her servos…

The back of her neck, even though it was in shadow, felt hotter…

She caught her left servo reaching back to rub, to scratch… she pulled it back down and looked at the claws she bore…

Ratchet told her she had to stop rubbing and scratching…

She picked up the canister and looked at it… she could feel the liquid inside slosh about…

Maybe just a quick top up?

No she couldn't… she didn't have a stationary reflective surface to use for reference…

And she didn't have an extra set of servos to hold the very delicate foil to use… and it's yellow colouration would prevent a proper gauge…

Sometimes she wished they hadn't put her optics back in after she tore them out…

She could've learned how to live without her optics… she knew of a couple Autobots who's frames were damaged to the point they could no longer have normal optics, and required a work around to see.

Most notable was Jazz and that visor of his…

Wherever it was her thought process was going, was swiftly derailed by an incoming message on her private com-line.

The call sign brought a little smile back to her as she opened the message on her HUD.

:Yo N! Look what Sunny did!:

It was a single line, but underneath was an attached picture, already intrigued, she opened it.

Her jaw hurt with how wide it went with the laugh she let out.

She recognised that very shiny gold aft anywhere, even if the rest of the mech attached was stuck in some white stuff.

:I think you should help you brother out of that Sides, I doubt he'll be keen to share a ship with you if you leave him in there too long.:

:Nah he's fine, already got him out, back on our little bucket of a ship now and he's taken all the thermal blankets, the slagger, this moon is freezing!:

:Is the heating system having trouble?:

:Yeah, we got the system that keeps everything from freezing over going, but the internal heating system ain't working :( :

:Hmm, I might be able to walk you through a systems check to see what might be wrong, how about that?:

:N, did I ever mention how much of a lifesaver you are?:

:Focus Sides, run a systems check via the main console, once I know what's wrong, we can go from there.:

:You're the best sweetspark.:

She felt energon flush to her faceplates then.

She still wasn't used to how… forward he was sometimes.

She shook her helm, they were at war, and as much as Sides was a charmer, they'd all agreed to keep things as friends until the war was done…

Though considering they'd lost Cybertron, there were now, to her knowledge, very few Autobots left… the war was as good as lost to them…

Hence Optimus's plans to rebuild here… on this little jewel of a planet, out in the outer third of the galaxy, so far from Cybertron that… had Shatter and Dropkick not tailed Cliffjumper, they likely would never have been discovered…

But there was a good thing laid in that.

She _knew_ Shatter, the Triple Changer was too proud to ever report back anything short of a victory… and Dropkick wasn't the type to go behind Shatters back for a report.

If they could group up and man an assault on the two triple changers, and win, their location would be safe…

For that, she had to find B-127.

After she'd helped Sides figure out what was wrong with his and Sunny's heating system.

* * *

**Yeah, G1 Cliffjumper was quite the dick to Mirage because he suspected him of being a Con spy, so, here he is being a dick to N-0V4.**

**Also yes, Sides, Sunny and N-0V4 are already pretty damn close, their past together will be explored in the future.**

**That's all I'll say for now, until next time!**

**Moon**


	4. Chapter 4

**And here's chapter 4! Hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Somewhere in Texas

Agent Burns scowled up at the two giant robots.

He wasn't a fool, the big red one was injured, the blue one was subtly providing support.

The blue one mumbled something to the red one, the red one shot down whatever it was with a hand wave.

They turned back to regard him, Powel, and the compiled forces that backed them. He took that as his moment to introduce themselves. "Liten up! I'm Agent Burns and this is… Doctor Powel. We currently have one hundred guns pointed right at your head, so state your business!"

Shatter tried not to smirk, and carefully lowered herself, gritting her denta as her patched wounds strained from the motion, they had all hurt like slag enough when she'd had to transform. After a moment, she shifted her vocaliser so she'd sound more 'approachable'. "People of Earth…" Her blown out optic socket took that moment to spark, causing her to flinch and shake her helm reflexively. "... We are Decepticon… Peace Keepers, patrolling the Galaxy."

Dropkick balked at her, servo still on her back and his other arm ready to spring out and catch her if something in her internal structure chose that moment to fail. "Wait. What are you doing?" He hissed quietly into her audio, which happened to be the one that had had the top half torn off by shrapnel.

Shatter glanced over her shoulder and somewhat implored him to follow her lead.

"This is humiliating." He mumbled as he joined her in kneeling, optics glancing wearily at the patch he'd put over her abominable structure, he was no medic, her fuel pump could fall out at any moment.

"We have reason to believe that three highly dangerous criminals from our homeworld have gone into hiding here on your planet." She allowed the holo-specs of B-127, Cliffjumper, and N-0V4 to loop for a few moments, before de-activating the projection once more.

The one introduced as Powel spoke up then. "How is it that you think we can help?"

Shatter smirked, this one was gullible, there was a spark of wonder in his gaze, perfect for manipulation, they'd have to work on the 'Agent Burns', he was weary.

She carefully pushed herself back up with her left arm, her right still mostly unresponsive. "We need your eyes." She explained, gesturing upwards to the blue tinted atmosphere.

The Agent was quick on the drop. "Wait… you want access to our Satellites?"

"Our scanners range is limited… your infrastructure is… primitive, but _combined_ , they could be quite powerful."

"No way! Out of the question!" Burns rebuked, gripping his gun just a bit tighter.

Shatter kept going. "We have a common enemy Agent Burns… There is a war raging on our planet. If B-127 and N-0V4 in particular are not found, that war may find its way here." She gestured to herself. "N-0V4 expecially, is not an enemy you would want to have, we tried to apprehend Cliffjumper when we first located him on the moon of one of your sister planets. But N-0V4 caught us unawares, and was able to flee here with Cliffjumper… I cannot emphasise this enough, if these dangerous criminals are not apprehended swiftly, I can make your species as a whole, will be left untouched." She made a show of gesturing to her injuries. "She is not one to hesitate."

Powel stepped forwards then. "Perhaps, we can find a way to help one another? Perhaps even provide the materials you require to heal?" He suggested. "We'll talk it over with our superiors… In the meantime, if you can follow us?"

Shatter smirked. "Very well friend Powel… take us to your leader."

* * *

Somewhere in the stratosphere

She'd finally scanned a planet appropriate alt mode…

She'd spotted it coming in to land, had stuck around and got close enough to scan it once the star had set past the mountains…

Despite being… a stealth bomber… it was rather stressful trying to get within scanning range and not be noticed by any of the natives.

Optimus couldn't have stressed the importance more that they don't attempt first contact and get something horribly wrong, before he was on planet side at least.

Her falling faceplates first onto the tarmac after tripping on that mesh wire fence would have done exactly that, altering every native within audio range to her tumble.

Luckily for her, she'd instead only slightly caught the top, and frozen stiff at the noise it made.

But that was all done now, she had an altmode she could, somewhat blend in with, emphasis on the somewhat, she'd yet to see the any vehicles in her colours, hopefully purple, gold and white wasn't too suspicious.

Oh who was she kidding, every aerial vehicle she'd seen so far was predominantly white! Where was the showiness the ground based vehicles of this planet got?!

Now she was cruising high in the planet's atmosphere using her long range scanners and cameras to try and pick up on B-127's signal. Something of an impossible task considering they were all using signal dampeners last she checked.

But it got her away from Cliffjumper and his foul attitude.

Every time she so much came into visual range of him, he'd scowl, and she'd duck back away, she was just checking in on him, he said he had plenty of energon in his subspace…

It was the fourth… Third? … Sixth? Cycle?

N-0V4 almost stalled her engines, but quickly amended the lapse in judgement, if she wasn't in her alt mode she'd bang her helm, she was losing track of time on top of everything, wonderful, absolutely wonderful.

It wasn't her fault? Right?

This planet's day/night cycle was a lot faster than she was used to, and she hadn't taken the time to properly time it and configure her chronometer to it.

It was just a small thing she'd deal with when she had a quiet moment after they had located B-127.

Maybe she should send him a video message on their private com-link?

She couldn't exactly record a video feed while flying high in the planet's atmosphere, but she could send a voice recording… or two… maybe three?

Until he finally replied?

First she had to find somewhere to land where she wouldn't be picked up as odd by the local dominant species, her tanks were starting to get low, when was the last time she refueled? The planets moon?

The dominant species seemed to be utilising low frequency waves to scan the atmosphere, for what specifically she wasn't sure? Well besides crafts like the one she scanned, and their smaller and larger versions she sometimes spotted far below as they cruised along.

Transports for large numbers over long distances, strangely similar to Cybertronian grounder transport ships before the war...

A few hours of searching from high altitude later, and with the star setting on the horizon of the area she was currently over, N-0V4 was finally able to locate a promising spot to settle and try and send out a message to B-127's private com-line.

It was a chasm, gouged right into the side of a forested cliff face, perfect for her to land into and not have to worry about natives spotting her, there was no signs of settlement, anywhere nearby.

Performing a maneuver she was fairly certain the vehicle she'd scanned wouldn't normally pull off, she flew directly at the chasm, transforming not far from the entrance, and throwing her pedes ahead of her to let the force of her pede mounted turbines counter her sharp decent into the darkness, activating the newly acquired lighting she had so she could safely navigate her way down to the narrow floor of the chasm.

It was damp, somewhat treacherous, but it would work.

She glanced up at the opening into the chasm, the light was applicable, and there was a limited chance that a native would stumble upon her here, when the drop down would likely slag their little bodies.

She found a ledge after a bit of exploring and following the moderately size river that was slowly cutting the chasm deeper.

Taking a seat she let her pedes stretch down into the cool water, helping to wash all the organic detritus that had gotten caught in them, she'd discovered wet squishy organic plant matter was even more of a pain to get out than clumps of moon dust, moon dust crumpled to dust and drifted away, this stuff, it stuck and clung on with avengence.

She tried not to think about how much Sunny would complain about his finish once he got here, he'd probably demand pampering even more than usual!

If that was even physically possible.

Letting herself have the little chuckle that thought brought about, she turned her attention back to her com-link line with B-127, and after a moment of hesitation, sent the call request through.

* * *

Red Woods California

The garbled, distorted message faded back into the cavity in Bumblebee's (B-127's?) exposed chest, leaving him staring up in shock at the canopy above as Charlie turned to regard him.

"Are… are you okay?" She asked tentatively, just as shaken as he was from the sudden message. "W-who was that?" Bumblebee made a whining sound. "That voice said something… said something about a… a war?"

Bumblebee moved to sit up as Charlie continued to speak. "Do you remember anything?!" She was working herself up into a bit of a frenzy now, but much the same was happening inside Bumblebee's own helm as well.

Charlie stepped away a bit. "Is… the VW Beetle some kind of… disguise? … Are you hiding from something?"

There was a pause as they looked at one another before she spoke again. "Are you scared?"

Bumblebee looked down and away from her, how was he supposed to answer that honestly when he didn't even have a voice to speak with?

He lifted up the panel that hid his radio, and gave the dial a cautious twist, nothing but whirring static coming out.

Charlie frowned at it then glance up to him. "It's broken… It's okay, I think I can help." She remarked, patting his shoulder as he looked up at her surprise. "C'mon, let's go home."

He moved to transform, when something popped up and made a sound in front of him, her made a noise of alarm, his transformation stalling as he looked at the thing that was flashing a small green face, some weird strangely familiar symbols underneath flashing along as well.

"Bee? Bee you okay?" Charlie said, trying to get his attention.

Bumblebee shook his helm, and ignored the noise and icon to instead nod to Charlie to reassure her, transforming down into his car form so she could hop in and they could got home.

The journey back was over an hour long, and there was at least six more times the icon popped up, ended, and a smaller second icon would pop up a little while after, before the first icon and noise would appear again.

He'd figure out what those meant once Charlie had helped him with his radio.

By the time they'd arrived back, the icons had stopped appearing altogether.

* * *

**And that's all for this one! Until next time!**

**Moon**


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter kicked my ass when I was writing it, it got to the point I just had to re-write the majority of it, that said, it's all done and ready to go now, hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 5 - You've got voicemail!**

Sector 7 Base, Hoover Dam

"I say this with all due respect, have you lost your damn mind?!" Agent Burns decried as he looked over the amassed officials around him.

"That was with all due respect?" Powel shot back.

"The man's got a point doctor…" The general at the head of the table interrupted. "Our satellite network is at the forefront of our national defense."

"Sir please it could be a once in a lifetime opportunity… Can you imagine the advances, an alliance with these creatures might bring?!" Powel pressed.

"Oh I can imagine the advances! An advance on Washington! New York! An advance on Chicago!" Agent Burns exclaimed, aghast that he seemed to be the only one with sense in the room.

"It's not going to happen."

"They literally call themselves _**Decepticons**_! That doesn't set off any red flags?!"

"Enough! From both of you." The general cut in.

"Sir… We're talking about the most advanced robotics system ever seen, if we tell them no they'll just take their technology to the Russians instead…"

Everyone else at the table shifted then, much more alert to the conversation.

"You really want to go down in history as the man who lost us the Cold War?"

Agent Burns had never wanted to throttle a man more in that moment.

But Powel's words had hit on a nerve. The general sighed before speaking again. "Right… we'll help them find their fugitives… that… N-0V4 one in particular is a high priority, if the damage it is said to be capable of is to be believed, it has to be stopped… and when it's all done… you can do all the experiments you want, hmm?" He looked to Powel who nodded, and then put his attention on Agent Burns.

"Yes Sir."

Agent Burns had a horrible feeling in his gut he was going to regret agreeing to this.

* * *

Watson Residence

Bumblebee was testing the new radio Charlie had given him, cycling through the 'stations' as she watched in.

"C'mon man, you gotta pick a station, I know there's a lot of choices." Charlie remarked.

Then he remembered the icons that had been popping up, not really thinking much of it, he went for the first one that had popped up, his radio spitting static for a few moments. "Hey, what are you trying to do?" Charlie asked, having noticed the static sounded different from normal radio static.

"-Scuse me sorry to barge in-" A new voice came from the door leading outside, Charlie's head spun around.

Just as another voice burst from his radio.

::B-127, B-127. Come in B-127, this is N-0V4, what was that signal you sent out about?! You clued in Shatter and Dropkick to Earth!::

He, Charlie and the new human all jerked back, the new human turning pale as he took in Bumblebee's form, surprise taking them all quickly as the voice that came through his radio, the voice was loud, so much so it risked Charlie's parents hearing, so he hastily turned down the volume dial further.

The voice kept going.

::B-127, if you think this is funny… hhhhuh… myself and Cliffjumper are planet side now, and I'm trying to locate you before Shatter and Dropkick do, please, relay your current coordinates over this channel so we can regroup and work as a unit to take out Shatter and Dropkick. Please, I can't fight them alone on equal grounds, and as you know, they don't fight fair.:: That was a lot of names that he had a sinking feeling he should know.

Charlie looked to the newcomer, that kid who lived across the road, and felt a heavy lead weight drop in her gut, sounded like that war was a lot closer than she thought.

::Get back to me as soon as you can. N-0V4 out.:: Then the message ended.

Bumblebee shuttered his optics a few times, staring blankly at the tools on the other wall, trying to understand what he just heard…

The new human made a noise and he jerked, realising that he'd been seen by someone else, Bumblebee transformed down into his car form.

Charlie rushed over to the other human. "No! No! Don't run!"

"Huhhuuhuh?!"

"Just, Just sit down." She said, pushing him into the chair near the door. "Please, shhh, don't scream okay?"

The new human looked jerkingly over to Bumblebee.

Noises came out of him but he seemed to not be able to get one coherent thought out.

"It's okay, just breathe, breathe." Charlie pleaded. "Um, first of all! Hi! I'm Charlie."

"-Hi?"

"I'm Charlie."

"I'm Memo, hi."

"Hi Memo… Um, it's nice to meet you…

"Pleas... Pleasure uhhh.

"Look I know what you saw was a little crazy, I can explain." She looked over to him. "Yeah I can't explain… um… him or the voice… But look, if you tell anyone about what you saw, I'm going to have to… run you over with my car!"

Memo stared at her, somewhat terrified.

Bumblebee opted to stay quiet, sinking further onto his tires, they were dead, so dead.

"J-jeez…"

"That was… I didn't mean that in a mean way, okay? What I'm saying is, no one can know about what you just saw… Okay? … You promise?!" She strained out.

"... Yeah…"

"Okay." She breathed out.

She turned back towards Bumblebee, taking a few moments to steady herself before speaking. "Okay, Bumblebee you can come out now..."

* * *

Jupiter's moon Europa

"Hey… Sunny… Sunny… Sunny…" Sideswipe poked the mass of thermal blankets. "N was right, it was the pipes, we'd left the system off so long the pipes had frozen."

The bundle grumbled and rolled over.

Sideswipe pouted. "Rude, no 'oh thanks bro, now we won't be freezing our skid plates off bro.'" He grouched.

The bundle just grumbled again.

Sideswipe rolled his optics. "Fine, you just lay on the floor, I'm gonna message N." He pushed himself up and walked over to the singular pilots seat of their craft.

The bundle shifted and a helm perked up.

Sideswipe wagged a digit. "No, no, you stay on the floor, your beauty rest is clearly more important." He stated while already tapping away at a message to send off to N-0V4.

:Hey N, how are yah holding up on the new homeworld?:

Despite the time needed for the message to transmit fully, the reply seemed almost instantaneous.

:Bad.:

Sideswipe sat up a bit in the seat. :Bad? What's going on?:

:I can't find B-127, and he hasn't responded to any of the messages I sent.:

:Okay. On a scale of 1, to 10, how much are you panicking?:

There was a painfully long pause this time.

:8:

"Scrap. Sunny, N's not doing good."

Sunstreaker was up and at his side not a moment later. "What? What's happened?"

"B-127 is MIA… She's not doing well with all the stress of not being able to find him is my guess."

"Slaggit, Sides we gotta get there." Sunstreaker growled, though it was dampened by the worry in his tone.

Sideswipe frowned, glancing to the console. "We were told to wait for the signal…"

"If B-127 is MIA, there isn't going to be a signal from him, we have to get to that planet, now. N needs us."

Sideswipe frowned for a moment before nodding, setting to work getting the ship's engines back online, it wasn't a fast ship, but that was something they were going to have to deal with.

Once they were clear of the moon, Sideswipe glanced to Sunstreaker. "You think Shatter and Dropkick are already on Earth?"

Sunstreaker nodded. "No doubt, with that vendetta they have against N, they would chase her across the galaxy if they could, the slaggers."

"Go in guns blazing?" Sideswipe suggested.

Sunstreaker shook his helm. "No, we locate N, we get the full run down, and we keep her safe. She feels safe when she knows we are, so we stick to her and help her look for B-127."

Sideswipe nodded. "Alright… alright we can do that… it will take us a cycle or three to get there… probably four if I'm being honest…"

"We're using this planet to slingshot us there right?"

"If we weren't it would take us even longer." Sideswipe confirmed, his focus mostly on the instruments in front of him.

Sunstreaker patted his twins shoulder span, trying to ease the nervousness coursing through them both across the bond.

* * *

The chasm, Berchtesgaden Austria

She was pacing.

She'd been pacing for joors now, the ground underneath her broken and crushed flat under her bulk into a nice little, river running, pacing track.

Sunny and Sides would be arriving in a few short cycles, they let her know as much, but the longer B-127 went without replying, the more frayed her sensornet seemed to become.

The stream that had cut this cavern flowed over and around her pedes, creating an ever churning sound with her steps as she tried to figure out what to do.

Cliffjumper was about as helpful as a rock now, she'd tried to fill him in on the fact she still wasn't getting a response from B-127, and he'd just replied that B-127 had had the sense knocked into him and wasn't going to give his position away to a Con.

She'd gotten into an awkward position, shoved her face into the stream and screamed just to get out her frustration before she acted on the impulse to fly back and give that damn bigotted mech a piece of her processor, and maybe a whack to the back of his helm, but that would only goad him further and risk her getting shot by him.

She looked up to the opening of the chasm she'd came in from, the local star was starting to dip beyond the horizon… once it was dark out she was going to start flying again, and hopefully B-127 would reply while she was…

Pulling out one of the cubes of energon from her subspace, she scowled at it, she'd have to refuel before taking off… but her tanks just weren't interested in intaking anything right now…

In all honesty to herself as she stood in a small river in a hole in the ground of an alien world, she was so slagging stressed she'd likely end up purging, wasting the energon…

She didn't have access to anything else, the stuff she had would last her about a vorn, but every wasted drop meant that the reserve would last less and less…

But if she wanted to continue searching for B-127, she had to fuel up, lest she run out and end up crashing somewhere on this planet…

Sometimes she really did want to curse out her luck for being sparked a Seeker…

If she was a grounder…

If she was a grounder she wouldn't be who she was now…

But ignoring that, if she was able to take a ground based vehicle mode… she would certainly not have to worry about running out of fuel and plummeting from the upper atmosphere straight down…

And there went her tanks with that thought, the organ roiling at the prospect in such a way she could feel the energon she still had in there churn uncomfortably.

Maybe she should just take a stassis nap to give her systems a rest…

She was already moving to lean against a nook in the side of the chasm before she finished thinking of it, folding her wings down behind herself as flat as they could go as well as having her shoulder spans shift to point downwards instead of up and out.

That done, she let her helm thunk against the wall of the chasm, and was in stassis not a moment later, the low thrum of her systems winding down further until the water sloshing around her pedes drowned it all out.

* * *

**And that's chapter 5!**

**Little note, back during October I made a request to an artist I know, Pika, over on Deviantart to draw N-0V4 for their month challenge, and she looks amazing! It's 18# if anyone is curious!**

**With that all said, until next time!**

**Moon.**


	6. Chapter 6

**This chapter was so much fun to write for me, hopefully you all have as much fun reading it!**

* * *

Kaon, Cybertron

The fortress was unnervingly quiet to the forces that lurked within.

The only sound past the hum of energy pulsing through the walls, was the drone of one voice.

A voice that was giving a report as droning and dull as the voice saying it.

Reclining on his throne, sat Megatron, one single digit slowly tapping against the arm rest, the dent emphasising the force of each tap as it rang out through the massive cavernous throne room.

Starscream stood off to his right, distinctly just outside of immediate neck grabbing distance.

A blind fool who'd spent the last few eons buried in a scraplet den would be able to tell that Megatron was in a decidedly foul mood.

No, he was livid, seething in his own armour as the edge of his optic twitched.

" - So concludes my report… my liege…" Shockwave finished, the report delivered.

The silence that followed was absolute, even the tapping digit had ceased.

Starscream's gaze flickered between Megatron and Shockwave, the tension in his own frame evident in how the very tips of his wings rattled.

With every moment that ticked by, the silence became heavier, soon enough it became crushing with it's oppressive weight.

Even Shockwave, the ever stoic emotionless mech, twitched, the little audio fins on the sides of his helm dipping ever so slightly.

Starscream envied Soundwave having the excuse of being in the med bay looking over Ravage, the damned best had had it's lower jaw broken during the scuffle with Optimus Prime, and if Soundwave wasn't there to calm the beast, the medical staff would of outright refused to operate.

Shockwave finally broke the silence. "My liege?"

"One Autobot…"

Megatron's growl of the two words somehow managed to put Starscream on edge, if he wasn't worried of the scene he'd make toppling off the pedestal, he'd shuffler further over to the right.

Shockwave seemed to hold his ground. "One... Autobot?"

Megatron's expression was one of a distinctly enraged snarl. "One… Autobot… My entire army with one. Singular. Target… And he escapes… _he escapes_ _me_ _._ "

Ah… he was pissed off that Optimus Prime had managed to steal his personal starship as his getaway vehicle, without even throwing a single punch to Megatron's face no less.

Starscream decided it would be best he not say a word, Megatron could be best described as a powder keg, and he'd much rather have him explode at Shockwave for once, than himself.

"My liege, the Autobots have abandoned Cybertron. We have won the war for the supremacy of our home world, I… had predicted you'd be more pleased about that than this…"

Megatron did not answer Shockwave's leading tone.

Instead, he slowly rose from his throne, and stalked towards the cycloptic purple mech.

It was only once he had leaned down, his two burning crimson optics locked on Shockwave's one yellow, that he spoke. "The war is _not won._ It will never be, until Optimus Prime's _helm…_ IS _MOUNTED_ OVER MY THRONE!" He roared. "THAT _COWARD_... THAT COWARD LOOKED ME IN THE OPTICS, TURNED, AND FLED LIKE A _NEWSPARK_! EONS OF BATTLE, EONS OF BELIEVED LAST STANDS! AND WHEN I FINALLY HAVE HIM WHERE I WANT HIM… HE… _**RUNS**_."

Starscream took a moment to pinch himself so he didn't make a comment, now was not a good time to earn Megatron's ire.

"Search units have already been sent out, my liege." Shockwave assured, apparently unphased by the hulking mass of rage leering at him with enough acid in his gaze the mech should honestly be a pile of corroded muck on the floor by now.

Megatron scowled at Shockwave for a few more moments, before turning and storming back to the throne, only sparing a glance to Starscream as he moved to turn and sit back down.

Shockwave took that as his cue to leave, turning and taking the long walk out of the massive hall.

The silence returned.

Starscream took that as his chance to speak. "My lord… If I may make a request?"

Megatron's helm slowly cranked to regard him, the fury still there, but in a staggering change from the norm, it wasn't aimed directly at him, more bubbling under the surface.

Starscream gave a quick bow as he spoke. "May I request to return to Vos, I wish to see to it returning to its place in the sky…"

Vos had been grounded at Megatron's commands around the midpoint of the war, citing the high demand for energon it took to keep the flying city airborne.

Megatron scowled at him. "And why… would you want to do that Starscream?"

"I have been receiving reports from some of my underlings that flight sickness is beginning to become a problem, having Vos airborne once more, my Seekers will be able to recover, Vos does not need to remain in the air forever more, merely to abate this ailment from my Seekers." He tried to say as carefully as possible.

He was tired of having the bolts beaten out of him for being a tad snarky to the war lord.

Megatron looked ahead for a time, then slowly nodded. "I will have confirmation for the moorings to be broken within the next Cycle, once the Seekers are all back at full form, Vos is to go to ground once more. And you're Seekers will begin patrols of our borders to make sure any Autobots trying to return, are brought in shackles to my pedes."

Starscream bowed a second time, and took the following silence to speak again. "Sir… if I may ask, what is your opinion of that bomb that was detonated?"

Megatron looked to him, the anger sizzling away to be replaced with confusion. "Bomb?"

Starscream tried not to balk.

Had Megatron been so lost in his fury he'd completely missed the largest explosive payload detonated during the war, and the report pertaining to it?!

Starscream took a few moments to pull up a holo-screen of the recording he had on servo.

Megatron leaned in to watch, optics going a bit wide as he took in the explosion. "When… did this occur?"

"Shortly before the Autobots reached the launch tower, the detonation zone is currently unreachable due to the amount of what seems to be concentrated star radiation propagating out… the Autobots recreated atomic fission, in a bomb, and detonated it on us… The casualty count is still under way."

Megatron reclined back. "I did feel a blast of heat… but I was using the subterranean tunnels at the time to intercept Optimus… Wait… it was detonated above the super structure in the video… it was dropped… from altitude…"

Starscream nodded, watching Megatron connect the dots in his helm.

Megatron scowled. "N-0V4… had I known she would be this much of an issue as an enemy, I would have just had the DJD deal with her for insubordination, instead of sending her to Shockwave."

Starscream continued to nod along to Megatron's words.

Megatron scowled. "Such a small payload… with such a massive potential… it might be worth keeping her online long enough to squeeze how she did it out of her processor… Where is Trepan?"

Starscream balked for a moment, before a rather reassuring memory popped up. "You... smashed their helm in with a piece of building when you discovered Overlord was trying to learn Nmemosurgery from them… And they were the only one with those… specific… skills left… so I advise traditional torture when she is captured, oh and not letting Shockwave have another chance to let her escape."

Megatron seemed to pause to let that sink in, then hummed under his vents. "I'll have to change the wanted status of her from 'dead or alive' to 'alive and cognizant'."

Starscream nodded. "Of course my liege. I will leave for Vos now, I will return with a report once Vos is grounded once more."

As much as it pained his spark the fact he would have to ground Vos again, he was just, tired of the beatings, and going against Megatron now that he didn't have Optimus to aim his punches at, Starscream did not want to risk a beating where he didn't get back up from.

Megatron watched his second in command depart, a growl leaving his engine as he pulled up the video of that explosion again.

A diversion, a major toss up of the chain of command…

The Autobots used the chaos it had created to escape…

He rumbled out a low sinister chuckle as he remembered the wide optics of Optimus Prime as he'd tried to make up the ground between them.

How he'd turned and fled in his faster alt mode, commandeered his personal ship, and blasted away before the rear doors were fully closed.

A cowardly but clever escape…

It tickled his spark really, to know that their victory was so close, the Autobots, that Optimus, had condoned such an explosion, such a devastating payload to be detonated, all so his ground crawling lackeys could escape.

The next time they met, there would be no such trick.

Next time, he will hold Optimus Prime's helm aloft.

Next time, he would win the war.

Optimus Prime, was on borrowed time.

Time borrowed from the molten husks of his soldiers, and a leveled chunk of Iacon.

He could already taste the tantalisingly sweet promise of his penultimate victory.

But first…

He activated his com-link, and spoke before that sycophantic could start with the nonsense praise. ::Tarn. I need you to remove N-0V4 from your list, I require her online and brought to me in chains, that bomb she dropped, I must have it's secrets.::

He ended the com-link before Tarn could reply, and could refute having someone taken off his list.

But Tarn would take N-0V4 off his list, for he would never dare try and cross his lord and master.

He reclined back in his throne with a small smirk.

Victory, victory was so close, all he had to do was exercise a few moments of patience, and then, he will need only to reach out, and take it.

* * *

**And that's all for now! Until next time!**

**Moon.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Had a little trouble with 9, but cranked out the last half of it this morning, so now I can post this one! Hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 7 - Who's that lady on the phone?**

They were driving along a winding road, Charlie in the driving seat and Memo in the Passenger.

The explanations had lulled to a stop a while ago, Charlie had few answers to give Memo for his questions.

As they took another bend, Memo spoke up. "So… that voice… coming from Bee's radio?"

Charlie wanted to smack herself for almost completely forgetting about that, she'd been so distracted by Memo's appearance. "Shit… Um… Bee, think you can play it again?"

Bumblebee hummed through the radio and pulled off the road onto a disused one, there was little to no light under the thin canopy because of the waning moon, but neither really cared as they focused on Bumblebee's radio as much as they could in the dark.

The same voice came across the radio soon after, repeating the message.

::B-127, B-127. Come in B-127, this is N-0V4, what was that signal you sent out about?! You clued in Shatter and Dropkick to Earth!::

It started off with the lady's voice sounding mostly formal, but quickly that broke into someone that sounded very distressed.

Charlie glanced around Bumblebee's interior. "So… Your actual name is B-127?"

An almost hum like sound came over the radio.

Memo spoke up, noting the voice was likely paused. "You like Bumblebee better?"

Bumblebee buzzed a positive sound.

Charlie smiled and patted his dashboard. "Cool, start her back up Bee, this N-0V4 lady sounds like she's worried about you.

::B-127, if you think this is funny… hhhhuh… myself and Cliffjumper are planet side now-::

The radio paused again. "Planet side… so… he's definitely an alien?" Memo asked, not really leaning for an answer.

Bumblebee whined.

"Okay… so there's five in total… Bee, this N-0V4 lady, and Cliffjumper… but there's also Shater and Dropkick?" Charlie murmured more to herself, working it out.

Bumblebee hit play again.

::-and I'm trying to locate you before Shatter and Dropkick do, please, relay your current coordinates over this channel so we can regroup and work as a unit to take out Shatter and Dropkick. Please, I can't fight them alone on equal grounds, and they don't fight fair.::

Memo hissed. "She sounds pretty desperate there… do you think you could reply to her Bee?"

Bumblebee sank on his suspension with a low whine.

Charlie patted his dashboard again, hoping to at least try and console him.

::Get back to me as soon as you can. N-0V4 out.::

The recording ended with an almost chirping sound, and silence filled his interior for a few heavy moments.

Charlie leaned back into the drivers seat, gritting her teeth as she sighed. "That big red and blue one said there was a war…" Memo audibly gulped. "My guess is, this N-0V4 and Cliffjumper and on your side, your team, and the other two are the enemy side…"

Memo looked a bit drained of colour. "Giant alien robots have brought their war to Earth… great… just great…" He mumbled.

Bumblebee whined, it wasn't his fault! Was it?

Charlie seemed to pick up on the distress. "Hey Bee, easy, you don't remember any of this do you?"

He whined again a negative.

Charlie glanced to Memo. "Did she send anymore messages? She might have told you where to find her and Cliffjumper."

His suspension perked up, there were more messages!

He pulled up the list and let the second one on the list start to play.

The same voice came through his radio, the audio quality was slightly garbled, but still clear enough to easily understand.

::B-127, B-127, please come in. It has been 10 breems since my last attempted communication, please respond. I need you to provide your current coordinates so that I can locate you. Cliffjumper's already expressed his... displeasure in working with me in searching for you, so I would appreciate you replying soon.::

Charlie and Memo exchanged a look as what sounded like metal on metal and a very exhausted sigh followed.

::It doesn't have to be a verbal declaration, if you're currently in a situation where you can't risk communication due to close proximity with the natives, please just send a data burst along this com-line, I can track you down with relative ease using that method by honing in on the direction it came from.::

::B… please reply soon, you were supposed to send out the 'go, no go' com burst when you found a safe place for us to settle… I'm having little luck myself considering I'm standing in a gorge in the side of a mountain with my pede turbines flooded with water. Please get back to me soon, N-0V4 out.::

Charlie and Memo glanced to the radio as this latest one ended with the same sign off as the first.

Charlie was the one to speak. "So, do you think we can answer her? Like, return the call?" She asked tentatively, with Memo nodding along as she spoke.

Bumblebee let out a whine from somewhere inside him, frame slumping.

Charlie patted the radio. "Try first okay? Don't give up just yet."

A few minutes of fiddling with the stuff that hovered in front of him, he apparently pressed the right thing to call back.

Charlie and Memo alike jumped at what they could only guess was the alien version of a phone ringing.

It got to the fourth chime when the ladies voice came back. ::B-127! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED TO THE PITS YOU'VE MADE ME?!::

All three jolted with sounds of alarm at the near roar that came through the speakers.

The silence that followed that exclamation lasted for a few moments before N-0V4 started back up. "Well?! Do you have nothing to say for yourself?! I've been worried sick!"

Silence fell again.

Memo and Charlie exchanged deer in headlight looks.

::B-127?! Are you going to actually say something to explain yourself?!::

Charlie answered before she could stop herself. "He can't talk."

A noise came from the radio that sounded like a turbine whining.

::B-127… if you are-::

"He can't talk!" She snapped again.

The voice that came over the radio sounded terrified then. ::Native… you've captured B-127… and your holding him hostage… cracked him open… hacked his com-frequencies…::

"What?! No! I'm sitting in his drivers seat!"

Bumblebee let out a buzz of agreement.

::... Uh… but… B… you weren't supposed to make contact? Optimus was specific on that!::

Bumblebee whined, Charlie spoke up. "Maybe you should just come here, we're in California. You said in your message that you should be able to… triangle our location?"

::Triangulate… yes I can… I'll inform Cliffjumper, then fly right over. I'll be there in about a joor.::

The radio gave a buzz of static, and no more words followed.

Charlie and Memo exchanged a look. "So… we wait here? … For a jar?" Memo asked.

Charlie shrugged. "Guess so… She said she was… going to fly over… guess she's a plane or something like that…"

"Or a UFO." Memo suggested.

Charlie regarded him oddly, before she gave a small nod. "Or a UFO…"

Bumblebee whined, curious to what they meant.

"Oh, it mean 'Unidentified Flying Object'... flying saucers with little green men… aliens, you know… like… you… oh my god we're sitting in an alien..." The realisation seemed to hit Charlie fully then, and her grip on his steering wheel tightened. "Bee! You're an alien!"

Memo took the time to face palm at that.

After a few minutes of working Charlie through that apparent bombshell that had dropped in her mind, they agreed that they'd wait right there for N-0V4 to arrive.

Bumblebee ended up tuning into one of the local radio stations, and the three ended up just listening on and at times interspersing the air with chatter.

They were content in each other's company to wait, and so, wait they did.

* * *

Sector Seven, Hoover Dam

"SIR! SIR!" Simmons, one of the newest recruits ran into the main room, waving a sheet of Fax paper.

Burns, Powel, Shatter and Dropkick, along with a good number of the other individuals in the room turned to regard the man.

He passed the Fax paper to Burns. "It's JFK international Airport, their air traffic controllers spotted something coming in off the Atlantic at high velocity, it didn't respond to any attempts to hail it, and it's been spotted by more airports heading from East to West across the country in the thirty minutes!"

Burns read over the Fax paper, it said just as Simmons reported, but stalled at one bit he was reading. "Ground velocity… this is impossible!" He exclaimed, looking at the numbers. "We don't have anything that could fly… this…" He slowly turned his attention up to Shatter and Dropkick, who were smirking.

Shatter decided to confirm it for the man, a knowing smirk crawling across her features. "N-0V4… has the aerial capacity to fly at just shy of five times the speed of sound… I can guess she has located B-127, if she is making such haste."

Dropkick chuckled to himself. "Such a hurry she forgot to avoid your radar systems…"

Powel was nodding, looking over the information on the fax over Burn's shoulder. "And following this path… N-0V4 is either heading for California, or Hawaii…"

Shatter smirk grew wider. "Then perhaps, we should go surprise her and B-127? I do need to get her back for what she did on that moon." She clenched her still recovering arm, wincing as the humans well meaning but insufficient welds strained.

They weren't much better than Dropkicks, but they had been able to get to the smaller spots.

Burns frowned, but had to nod, orders were orders, and he'd been ordered to work with these two to capture the three hostiles.

He was still having that gut feeling that they were going to regret this.

* * *

Woodland road outside of Brighton Falls

Memo and Charlie had both fallen asleep in their seats when the first change came.

It was a two toned sound, loud and cacophonous, a sudden sharp 'BOOM' that had Bumblebee jolting, and in turn, jolting his passengers awake, the second tone being a shrill high pitched whistle that had both humans clutching their ears.

Both humans let out startled noises as a second 'BOOM' followed only a few moments after, already sounding closer than the last.

All three barely had time to comprehend what was going on, before a different sound reached them, one that sounded distinctly like Bumblebee when he shifted between his disguise and actual form.

Memo and Charlie exchanged a dawning look of realisation, both scrambling to get out of Bumblebee, who swung his doors open to let them both out so that he could transform.

Finally the sound of something large landing reached them, just a way beyond the woods and the road that hemmed it's edge.

Heavy foot falls followed, and two bright red orbs became visible in the darkness as Bumblebee finished transforming, his own bright blue optics wide as a towering silhouette became clear in the darkness.

Just as it stepped up onto the road, it became more clear, the clouds that had been obstructing the moon moving on and allowing the one approaching to be bathed in light.

The first thing that dawned on Charlie, was their size.

They were easily double Bumblebee's height, and that wasn't counting the plane wings sprouting out and up from their back.

"B… B-127?" N-0V4 asked tentatively, taking another step closer, the main road now cleared as they stepped onto the less used road.

Bumblebee slowly nodded.

N-0VA's features lit up in a smile, and the last few steps happened swiftly, shaking the ground as she nearly sprinted forwards, giving Bumblebee no time to react before she'd swept him up into a crushingly tight hug.

Charlie and Memo both had to dive out of the way to avoid being trampled.

"B! You slag heap! Do you have any idea how worried we've all been for you?!" She exclaimed, holding him tight to her front while his pedes dangled uselessly above the ground, his own arms pinned to his sides as she swung both of the from side to side.

Bumblebee whined, trying to squirm free.

N-0V4 frowned at this, but set him down. "What's wrong? No snarky remark? No witty banter? B, what... why… why are you looking at me like that?" She mumbled.

Bumblebee glanced down and to the side, working his jaw before letting out a low buzzing whine.

Her optics widened, going down onto her knees so that she was more level with him, she pulled down her magnifier and activated the light function, illuminating Bumblebee's neck area, one of her digits hovering over what N-0V4 quickly recognised as a grievous wound, she didn't touch, but she didn't need to to realise what had happened.

"By the vaulted heights… your vocaliser's been ripped out… B… what happened to you?"

* * *

**A very good question N! Welp, that's the chapter! Until next time!**

**Moon.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry this took so long, had two big assignments and then took all the wind out of my sails for anything but them, but today, I got back into my stride and finished off the vast majority of chapter 10 all in one go! So here's chapter 8! Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 8 - A scattered introduction**

They opted to move deeper into the woods to talk, N-0V4 having to duck and almost crawl at times to avoid scraping her helm and wings against the low hanging branches.

Both she and Bumblebee were using their lights to show the way ahead for the two humans, who, unlike them, didn't have the ability to see in the dark.

Eventually Charlie seemed to make the decision they'd walked far enough, and so, promptly turned around and put her hands on her hips, enough to signify to the other three that it was time to stop.

Bumblebee shuffled on a bit more, turning to sit with his legs out on the ground, Charlie took that as sign enough to join him, hopping up to sit on his leg over the cold floor, after a few moments of hesitation, Memo followed suit with the other leg, obviously still rather nervous about everything.

N-0V4 watched the interaction intently, wings twitching behind her as her servos intertwined and fiddled.

"So…" Charlie began. "First and foremost, before you start… going on about stuff, Bee, doesn't remember you, or any of this… he's gotten across that he didn't even know his own name when he woke up in my garage after I fixed him up best I could"

N-0V4 stood there for a few moments, before her wings drooped to hang low behind her, optics going wide and her lower lip seemed to tremble a bit.

"You… You don't… You don't know me…"

Bumblebee could tell it was a loaded statement, he had to look away as he slowly nodded.

"I… oh no… no… no… Cliffjumper is going to slag me… the moment he finds out he's gonna accuse me of doing it… ripping out your vocaliser and smashing your helm in…. I'm assuming that's what caused it… Primus I can already hear the accusations!" She clutched the sides of her helm and dropped to her knees, causing the ground to shake for a moment.

Bumblebee let out a startled whine.

Memo and Charlie both looked aghast. "What! But you only just got here?!" Memo exclaimed.

"Why the hell would this Cliffjumper guy accuse you of that?!" Charlie followed up, making a face of disgust at the very notion.

Bumblebee nodded along to both, letting out a buzz that almost sounded steadfast.

She groaned, then slumped and rubbed at the dark metal that made up her face. "Right… right… so far you only have B-1… Bumblebee for context… well… it's because I'm a Seeker…"

All three stared at her confused.

With a sigh of her vents she moved to sit too, and then pointed to her wings. "Seekers are Cybertronians, that's the name of our species, who can fly… And we as a species… have been at war for… a very… very long time… you were just a sparkling when it started… that's why your designation is B-127… your creators, caregivers, whoever was looking after you, never gave you a name before they were, I assume, snuffed out…"

"Snuffed out?" Charlie tentatively asked.

"It's a term used to refer to… the passing on of a life, when the spark, the very thing that makes up our beings, extinguishes, snuffed out like a small star that's run out of fuel…"

"Oh, so like… kicking the bucket?"

N-0V4 raised an optic ridge at that. "I'm not sure what kicking a bucket means in regards to passing on… but if it's a term your kind finds fitting, then I guess so…?"

Memo raised his arm, immediately catching her attention. "Yes?"

"Two things… one, if Bumblebee was called 'B-127' because he didn't get given a name… why are you 'N-0V4'?"

"Ah… well… Seeker society works… differently from Grounder societies, for a Seeker, one must earn their name, via a defining act of character… or a great act of which the winglord rewards one with a designation to have as their own… It's… mostly reserved for those who want to climb up close enough to kiss the thrusters of the winglord…" N-0V4 tried to explain.

Charlie pouted. "That… that doesn't feel right… don't you want a name?"

N-0V4 made a face as she contemplated it. "I… well… um… other human… slag I haven't gotten your designations yet…"

"Charlie."

"Memo."

"Like a 'Memo' as in 'Oh I need to leave a memo to myself about something'?"

"No… um… well yes, but my name doesn't mean that…" Memo tried to explain.

"Ah… anyway… you had another question Memo?"

"Well, you started this talking about how this Cliffjumper dude hates you because you're a Seeker? I'm assuming he's a 'Grounder' like Bee here?"

N-0V4 nodded. "Yes, he hates me, thinks I'm behind every time even the smallest happenstance goes wrong…"

"But why? Is there a reason?"

"Oh… there's quite a few… all of which I've gone down on my knees and pleaded for forgiveness for…" She reached up and rubbed her throat. "He's got a nasty kick… And punch…"

All three looked aghast. "He attacked you?! For apologising?!"

Her frame sagged and she pulled back into herself. "Yes… I… I don't fault him for being hateful towards me… Considering… I'm the _only_ Seeker… on Bumblebee and Cliffjumper's side of the war… And… I used to fight against them… I've… I've got the energon of their friends… on my servos…" She was looking at them, her expression becoming one of a thousand mile stare at her clawed black plated servos.

"The odd punch and kick… the odd accusation of being a double agent… If I went back to my own kind…" A shudder went down her frame and her optics almost looked… wet to them. "If they caught me… If they took me back _alive_ … instead of just putting a round through my helm… traitors don't get swift deaths…"

A silence followed, Charlie and Memo alike had gone pale, and Bumblebee had reactively put a servo each around both of them, trying to ground himself a bit.

She rolled her shoulders and looked away from her servos and back to the three. "I still can't believe that you forgave me… that anyone was willing to give me a chance… but you don't remember any of it…" Her wings somehow managed to slump lower. "And all you have to go on are my words…"

Charlie frowned, then, having made a decision, she got up, and walked to stand just under N-0V4. "Bring your… servos down here." She gestured to her general height.

N-0V4 looked at her confused, but complied, lowering both down to Charlies height.

Charlie took N-0V4's right one first, and began to examine it, making a show of taking a look at all all the joints, moving the digits one at a time, and only once she was done with that, she shifted and put her back to the palm of N-0V4's servo, reaching out she pulled the servos digits around her. "Pick me up."

"What?!" N-0V4 exclaimed, startled by the suggestion.

Charlie didn't waver. "Pick me up, and bring me to your face."

A distinct mechanical gulp came from the Seeker at that, but she lifted Charlie up regardless, being mindful not to squeeze as she brought her other servo up so that Charlie could rest her feet on it, and to mitigate any risk of her slipping and falling as she brought the human up to optic height. "Now what?" She asked.

Charlie's mouth quirked to the side in a thoughtful pout. "Hold still."

N-0V4 went lock stiff, the blue of her optics was more the lesser against the red, and she only realised it as Charlie glowed a soft red, mottled with blue in front of her.

The stress had burned through most of the blue dye.

Perfect, just perfect.

She jolted a bit when two little human hands landed on the sides of her faceplates, her optics crossing somewhat to try and see Charlie properly.

"You're a good person. And this Cliffjumper guy, can go sit on a cactus."

"... What's a cactus?"

"It's a… no, focus, going on our limited contact so far, you're a good person N-0V4… just a bit stressed out."

N-0V4 huffed out a strained laugh at that. "Oh… you noticed!"

Charlie chuckled back. "Pretty hard to miss… look, this Cliff guy is obviously not good for your head, so, let's focus on other things, specifically our course of action… you mentioned a 'go, no go' in your message?"

N-0V4 perked up a bit then. "You're right! … Pits I need to tell the twins I found you!"

Charlie tilted her head to the side. "Um, twins?"

N-0V4 stared at her for a moment before it seemed to click why Charlie was asking that. "Oh! Right… I didn't mention them in the messages, Sunny and Sides are my friends, they're posted on one of the moons in this solar system, next to the larger of the two gas giants…"

"Jupiter."

"Ah so it's called Jupiter! That is cool! That's a pretty designation… Jupiter, Jupiter, Jupiter… the more I say it the more I focus on the 'Jup' it's such a weird thing to say, Jup, Jup, Jup, Jup, Jup, Jup…."

Bumblebee snapped his digits together, getting N-0V4's attention, once he had it he let out a noise and held up two of his digits.

"Oh right! The twins! Yeah, I've been chatting with Sunny and Sides while I've been looking for you… oh… Side's has been pinging me for about a joor now trying to find out why I stopped responding, give me a moment, I'm gonna let them know I found you B…"

Bumblebee nodded, then looked to where she was still holding Charlie, he reached out, offering his own servos for her to pass Charlie to.

N-OV4 did so, but seemed to be elsewhere as she did whatever it was she needed to do to contact these new two individuals.

A minute or so later N-0V4 chuckled. "Sides and Sunny are real glad to hear I've found you, I've let them know you were injured and still recovering, they're gonna pass the word onto Ratchet, he's out of my com range but not theirs, hopefully Ratchet will be able to make planet fall in… um… slag I still haven't synced my chronometer with this planet! One klik, I'm going to make a reminder." She pulled out her notes data pad, and then grumbled about how many memos she'd already forgotten about before adding it, and then putting the pad back away in her subspace. "One cycle I'll remember to do that."

Memo raised his hand again, and once more N-OV4's attention was immediately on him. "Yes Memo?"

"How many… exactly are there who are coming to Earth?"

N-0V4 pouted for a moment. "Well… there's the twins… Ratchet once they let him know B's been injured… and probably Optimus… if he's still online… every bot else is waiting for B's go no go on if this planet is safe to come to or not." She made a show of glancing around and shrugged. "It's certainly an interesting planet, I think Optimus picked pretty well… just wish Shatter and Dropkick hadn't managed to follow Cliffjumper to this solar system, then both of us to this planet… I don't want to consider what they're doing right now… probably trying to track us all down and slag us… heh… he... heee… hoo..."

Charlie glanced up at Bumblebee and Memo, before looking back to N-0V4. "So… what do we do now?"

N-0V4 frowned. "Hmm… I'll have to find somewhere I can hide… my colours and alt mode would likely stand out here… so probably best I find somewhere out of the way to hide… for communication let's do it primarily through audio hook ups like we did earlier, if you see a blue and a red vehicle moving in tandem towards you, get out of there, as fast as you can, and let me know as soon as possible, I'll be able to back you up if a fight breaks out." She explained, before pausing. "Do… do you even remember how to fight B?"

Bumblebee shook his helm.

"Oh… well… that's just _Prime…_ "

* * *

**I couldn't miss the opportunity. I have no regrets. Until next time! (hopefully quicker next time.)**

**Moon.**


End file.
